Ms. Sagarika Ghose’s Desperate Coherence With Hypocrisy

Anyone even mildly infatuated with Indian political scene
must have heard about Ms. Sagarika Ghose and her journalistic marvels. She was
the yesteryear assistant editor at CNN-IBN and at present, after leaving (or was
she terminated?) IBN she is busy writing columns for TOI. I am not sure what
happened to her blog titled “Bloody Mary” on IBN Portal, but what I know, Ms.
Ghose is continuing with her noteworthy efforts at exposing Saffron Hindutva dolts
in TOI’s op-ed page. To her credit, in the past also she has exposed many Hindutva
lunatics by her magical pen and she is still persisting with her noble exertions
in sanitizing our, both social and political scenes. In one of her such latest honorable
endeavors Ms. Ghose did what she does best – exposing how Hindutva elements of
India are forcing Muslims of the nation to search for a leader of their own and
how this fear psychosis ultimately culminating at a rising Asaduddin Owaisi and
his MIM. If you haven’t yet read the brilliance of Ms. Ghose then please do
read it here.

I always say this – Ms. Ghose and her writings do have a
peculiar lucidity. Somehow Ms. Ghose manages to produce the best in the very
first paragraph of the post; at times in the very first line itself. Sticking true to her character she does it yet
again.

Muslims must not let Hindutva hotheads push them into
perpetual victimhood.

I get what Ms. Ghose wants to say here. I totally get her pious intentions. Post 2014 general elections the biggest challenge for the nation in front is not
our depleting economy, education, healthcare, social and physical security,
women safety and many such frivolous stuff but the unprecedented advent of
Hindutva extremism. In fact this is the biggest danger in front of the whole world,
not only India. That is perhaps why, before Ms. Ghose it was a concerned Rahul
Gandhi who let know this fear to the then US Ambassador to India. I
totally agree here since the biggest danger to world peace at present is not ISIS, Taliban, Al-Qaida and many such
peace loving outfits but the notorious bloodhound Hindu centric zealots like
RSS, VHP and Bajrang Dal. That said I would still be interested to know how these
Hindu faggots are pushing Muslims to perpetual victimhood. For decades it is the
secularists who were seen frightening Muslims against Hindus. Since 2002 it is
people like Ms. Ghose who were busy excavating their pigment of imagination to
come up with Hindu acentric stories against Muslims. It is Ms. Ghose and her
ilk that taught Muslims to play victimhood to safeguard themselves against some
unrealistic fear. Now that the ploy failed miserably in delivering the required political
dividends, the same torch bearers of secularism like Ms. Ghose have started
finger pointing at directions that doesn’t exists. Who is pushing the Muslims
to not only perpetual victimhood but also perpetual insanity, Ms. Ghose? Who
counseled Muslims to fringe victimhood post Godhra train carnage or Kishtwar or
Muzafarnagar or Assam? Irony that extremely erudite people like Ms. Ghose resort to convenience of untruth to make their point wherein the real mess lies
elsewhere.

Not stopping there Ms. Ghose keeps on writing her version of
India. Here is a sample which needs some examination before we move forward.

Hindutva activists may want to tear Muslims and Hindus apart
through love jihad and ghar wapsi campaigns, but metropolitan middle-class
Hindus thronged to see Haider, some even silently shed a tear for the Kashmiri
Muslim hero. Jingoists may propagate violent rhetoric against Pakistan as a dog
whistle for majoritarian nationalism, but PK, Raju Hirani’s clever comic caper
lampooning Hindu godmen, is reportedly the biggest grosser in the history of
Bollywood, and wild-eyed agitators for a ban on the film have been roundly
outvoted by the vast majority of moviegoers.

For people like Ms. Ghose, the Idea of India is their
“metropolitan middle-class”. The poor in our villages and countryside never
feature in their scheme of things till the moment there happens to be a chance
to blast the BJP government, either at the center or the state. So while
praising Haider Ms. Ghose conveniently forgets to take account of the majority
of our population that lives in our villages. And it is only the brilliance of
Ms. Ghose that lets her see the movie goers as Hindus alone. It is again her
brilliance that she finds Hindutva activists as the primary catalyst in socially tearing
apart Hindus and Muslims. While she conveniently fires at Hindutva activists
she forgets to mention the names that are opposing a uniform civil code. Isn’t
that also a necessity in bringing coherence between Hindus and Muslims, Ms.
Ghose? Talk about tearing apart, Ms. Ghose fails to mention the existence of
something called article 370. People can separate a state from the rest of
India for political gain but Ms. Ghose sees the real reason of indifference
between Hindus and Muslims elsewhere. Congress ruled the nation for 60 years
and still 90% of Muslims are in deplorable social and economic state, but ask
Ms. Ghose to point the reason of such difference between Hindus and Muslims,
she looks at the Hindutva brigade. For Ms. Ghose Aligarh Muslim University or
Jamia Milia Islamia are not example of social divide but RSS, VHP and Banaras
Hindu University are. For Ms. Ghose the amount of money that PK generates automatically
becomes a vindication of Amir Khan’s flabbergasting comical take on Hindu
beliefs but Vishwaroopam is an attempt at dividing Hindus and Muslims. MF
Hussain’s myopic nudity of Hindu Goddesses were acts of creative masterpieces while
Salman Rushdie doesn’t get the similar comfort of her mighty pen. For her ‘Ghar
Wapsi’ is division of India on religious boundaries while Christian
missionaries driving thousands of tribals to Christianity everyday are
humanitarian efforts.

She further writes

Sadhvi Niranjan and Yogi Adityanath may conjure up hatred in
the quest for votes, Muzaffarnagar riots may bring poll dividends, but from the
‘Khanate’ of Bollywood to the Hamid Ansari-led Rajya Sabha to India’s tennis
torch-bearer Sania Mirza to business legends Yusuf Hamied and Azim Premji to
the cricketing quicksilver of Zaheer Khan and the Pathan brothers, India’s
exceptional Muslim citizens are icons whose achievements are proudly,
subliminally claimed by Indian nationalism even if the ‘Muslim’ is apparently
antithetical to it.

There is a striking similarity among all secularists while
mentioning the names of notable Muslims of India. They somehow tend to forget
the name of our ex-president Mr. APJ Abdul Kalam. So Ms. Ghose should get the
benefit of doubt for her ignorance. That apart, here I was expecting, Ms. Ghose being so vocal about the misuse of religion for votes, to start with the
pioneers of this filthy precedence. Who did ‘Sahabanoo’ Ms. Ghose? While Ms.
Ghose hammers on the present, she interestingly forgets this particular case,
which may be the very first visible misuse (or is it use?) of religion in our
political discourse. Surprisingly, for reasons best known to Ms. Ghose she
preferred to start with the two BJP members instead. Sadhvi Niranjan and Yogi
Adityanath might be wrong but then from whom they learnt this art? What was the
quest Ms. Ghose when Manmohan Singh said to have dedicated all national
resources at the disposal of Muslims as the first accumulators? If Sadhvi
Niranjan Jyoti was wrong with her ‘Haaramzada’ comment then so are Sagarika
Ghose and many of her media and political friends for coining terms like ‘Hero
of hatred’, ‘Maut Ka Saudagar’, ‘Hindu fascist’. I know, remembering the past
isn’t an easy task but then Ms. Ghose is too exceptional a journalist to forget
such blatant hypocrisies so easily.

Then Ms. Ghose picks up the Owaisi thread. I give that to
her since our secularists of late are desperate to somehow find that one thing to
counter Modi after the Gujarat 2002, Rahul Gandhi and Arvind Kejriwal
failed drastically in making any impact. So let’s see what she writes.

The rising star of ‘Muslim’ politics is now the rumbustious Asaduddin
Owaisi, leader of MIM, the Hyderabad city MP, once dismissed as a ‘fringe’
element, but now positioning himself as a ‘national’ leader whose party rather
impressively won two seats in the Maharashtra assembly elections, one more than
Raj Thackeray’s MNS.

Ms. Ghose in one of her posts after J&K election was very
critical about the numbers BJP got in the state. According to her, the presence
of BJP in Jammu alone doesn’t signify the resurgence of the party in the state.
Keep it in mind; BJP won 24 seats in a state where they were never considered having any credible existence. But today Asadudin Owaisi has to be a force to reckon with
since he managed to win just two seats in a vast state like Maharashtra. Ms.
Ghose was even doubly critical after the general elections. She along with
Farid Zakaria did some mind boggling mathematics to conclude that, since only 31% of
the country want Modi to be the priminister the majority of 69% don’t
want that fascist as the state head. Can Ms. Ghose please furnish the vote
share of MIM in the state of Maharashtra? The same MIM which even can’t rule
the Hyderabad (forte of MIM) Municipality on their own suddenly becomes a huge
force to counter the Modi juggernaut. I never thought wishful thinking can be
so potent. Didn’t I say at the beginning that our secularists are desperate for
that one thing to counter Modi? Be it real or self-imaginary like Mr. Owaisi and
MIM, seems to matter least, no?

Ms. Ghose goes on edifying us lesser mortals about the
phenomenon called Asaduddin Owaisi further.

45-year-old Owaisi is fast becoming the Muslim opposite
number to saffron politics, a claimant to being the sole spokesman who once
warned of a ‘third wave of Muslim radicalisation’ after the Assam riots and
whose intolerant cadres attacked Taslima Nasreen. Owaisi appeals massively to
the young Muslim’s rage and victimhood, by projecting himself as the
tough-talking saviour of his community.

In the emergence of Owaisi as sole spokesperson of the
Indian Muslim lies a dilemma of the community: if the so-called mainstream
‘secular’ parties will not address their concerns, if BJP will be seen to deny
them representation, then why not turn to a politician who is openly promising
to promote ‘Muslim’ interests?

So another piece of enlightenment is right here. It is quite
interesting to learn that those who opposed Taslima Nasrin are a bunch of
intolerant people while those agitating against PK are bigots, zealots,
wild-eyed and what not. I must congratulate Ms. Ghose and her wisdom for
managing to segregate two things so perfectly which otherwise appear so similar
in nature. But that should be fine since Ms. Ghose’s school of thought always
tells her to name the Islamic fanatics as gunmen while Hindu Sadhus and Sanths
as bloodhound terrorists. I should congratulate Ms. Ghose once more for drawing
parallels between Owaisi and RSS. We communal Hindus were too blinded all this while by our
compulsion of analyzing only the ‘We will kill all Hindus in 15 minutes’ nonsense
of Jr. Owaisi. How unfair it was on our part to ask Ms. Ghose and her ilk to
answer if they have ever heard any Hindutva activist propagating as poisonous ideology
as Akbaruddin Owaisi did. Similarly, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, Sakshi Maharaj and
Praveen Tagodia are lampoons of the society while Asaduddin Owaisi is a tough talking politician. Can Ms. Ghose please clarify what she would have termed
Modi had he talked the same language of Owaisi; a tough talking politician or a
religious bigot?

The grand differentiation qualities of Ms. Ghose are further
solidified in the second paragraph. Strangely, the agitating Hindus are always
the trouble makers since they agitate for no apparent reasons while those from
Islam seems to have genuine grievances always. Hindus opposing something nasty
as Wendy Doniger’s book or PK are dogmatists and noise makers but those
disrespecting and burning Azad Maidan or hurling stones at our security forces
are the perpetually aggrieved lot. Praveen Tagodia or for that matter Narendra
Modi showing concern for Hindu cause become fascists while Owaisi becomes the
savior of the Muslims and in turn a great political leader. Ms. Ghose further
elaborates why Muslims, irrespective of how absurd their demands are, ought to
be identified as their ‘concerns’ while Hindus asking for basic respect towards
their religion and religious figures become barking scoundrels. Ms. Ghose then
goes on to elaborate how Muslims are perfectly justified in moving towards Owaisi.
But ask her why those Hindus shouldn’t also be painted with the same brush for
moving towards Tagodia, you will be welcomed with profanes like ‘guttersnipe’.

Then Ms. Ghose suddenly switches back to her year old gaffe
of counting the number of Muslim MPs in our parliament.

The 16th Lok Sabha has the lowest number of Muslims ever
since the first general elections of 1952. There are just 24 Muslim MPs, down
from 30 in the previous Lok Sabha, who constitute just 4.4% of the House. For
the first time in an Indian Parliament there’s not a single Muslim MP from UP,
as BJP did not field a single Muslim candidate across the vast swathes of north
and west India except for the sole exception of Shahnawaz Hussain.

It is because of Ms. Ghose I came to know that there should
be a quota system in our parliament as well. Though I asked her a year back and
still waiting for some kind of answer, I must take this opportunity to ask her
again – what made Ms. Ghose to think that only Muslims must represent Muslims
in the parliament? And how not a single Muslim winning from UP becomes the
talking point while Ms. Ghose never debated the absence of a single Hindu MP
from Kashmir for such a long period? And how does that becomes a concern when
the contesting Muslims lose their seats in a democratic exercise? Does
democracy need to accommodate all kind of religion even if few of them are not winning
worthy? What kind of logic is this Ms. Ghose? Why everything has to be either
secular or communal in Ms. Ghose’s world? Lowest number of Muslims in 16th
Loksabha is because of the low winning percentage of the Muslim candidates and
why such a simple logic must go through the scrutiny of a secularism prism? Can
Ms. Ghose, in the same length ask her favorite politician Mr. Asaduddin Owais the
reasons for his complete disinterest in giving a single ticket to any Hindu?
MIM distancing itself from Hindus can be a core philosophy of the party while
BJP, even if not, can be accused of hate mongering for not having enough
Muslims in their ranks. Perhaps it is about time I join “Sagarika Ghose College
of Sociology” for the required enlightenment.

To end her highly confusing post, for a refreshing change,
Ms. Ghose does the unbelievable – she spoke truth for the first time in the
entire post.

Beyond the yelling bigots, there’s a silent more welcoming
truth: Indian Muslims would not be the second largest community in the world,
if the true Hindu was anti-Muslim

That
is the exact point Ms. Ghose. I am glad that you finally got the point though I was expecting
a smart soul like you to get that a little earlier; may be around 2004, if not 2002. India is a secular country
because Hindus are in majority. You can only look around the globe and
different demography to know, what happens when Muslims attain the majority
population. Has majoritarianism been so abundant in India as projected by Ms. Ghose, we would have turned a Hindu nation a long time back. For
Hindus to remain as secular as they are, we only need to thank the age old
philosophy, teachings and civilization, which unfortunately Ms. Ghose’s and her highly
intelligent ilk term as abject bigotry.Remember, "Jo Daar Gaya Woh Mandir Gaya"?

I am glad that you tried to educate me but sad enough, without understanding the context of the post. I am no where advocated against Hindu culture of being tolerant. All that I did was to show a mirror to Ms. Ghose and let her know her state of the art hypocrisies.

If sanatan dharmis don't stand up to protect dharma we would be soon endangered and eventually extinct. Read history already 80million slaughtered over 1000yrs . so if we do not learn from our history we would be as gullible as prithwiraj chauhan the great.

if any buddy read through PEW reports it is clear sharia and suicide bombing has high degree of acceptance in countries who are not suffering due to any international factors but due to islam as a religion Why is it that if you ran the same surveys anywhere else you'd not find the same answers . How has our sickular approach of appeasement helped? Any explanations to the exceptions to your theories?

I have been saying this for a long long time, most of the SICKular people argued that I am communal, some people said muslims are different and terrorists are different. but you see the history, all terrorists are muslims. that is why dont leave them alone, keep a watch on their activities, report any suspected activity by a muslim, train and educate childern to be careful of muslims, deal with them like u deal with snakes. A SNAKE IS A SNAKE, do not try to analyze if it is a good snake or bad snake. also keep an eye on your kids, there is a deliberate and sustained attempt by muslims to try and lure non muslim girls into a relation and then convert them into islam, the bigger design is to create a fear in the society. look at that girl terrorist in that pic, Hayat Boumeddiene look any angle she is come from muslim race?? this is perfect example of love jihad and conversion.

She has to earn a salary, increments, bonuses, perks, promotions, or a new job if she has to quit this one or is thrown out of this one....

REMEBER:

Media is a profit making organization.....It has to pay its employees and make a profit.

Wherever profit is a motive....Truth is always compromised....Marketing ..Selling ....TRP...Branding...becomes a priority....

What do u think Arnab Goswami is doing.....He is branding is program...building his own brand image...its just plain clever marketing in the guise of exposing the truth........

The times now channel is forever screaming the entire day...Arnab goswami...the only anchor....the only channel...the no 1.....this that........

Arnab, Rajdeep, Barkha, Prannoy, Sagarika..the other jokers....are all competing with each another in an office situation just like in any other office.....So just filter the right news from the colored or paid news and move on......

Journalists...Media or Print....are as corrupt and as crooked like any other profession.....CAs, doctors, lawyers, politicians, bankers, businessmen, politicians, union leaders...etc etc......

The problem is the skeletons in the cupboards of journalists do not come out in the open because who will print them or who will show them...They are all from the same biradari...!!!!

NOBODY IS A SAINT TODAY....NOT EVEN THE ONES THAT THE POPE DECIDES TO GRANT CANNONIZE OR DECLARE AS SAINTS!!!!!